CHARLESTON, S.C. – On behalf of the Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Command, SPAWAR Systems Center (SSC) Atlantic has awarded an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) for its Information Warfare Research Project (IWRP) to Advanced Technology International (ATI) for the IWRP Consortium management. It is valued at $100 million over a three-year period. The IWRP OT award is the result of efforts across the SPAWAR enterprise to provide an acquisition strategy for use across the systems centers and Program Executive Offices (PEOs) that enables rapidly advancing information warfare technologies and innovation delivery to the fleet.

Under the OTA construct, Advanced Technology International of Summerville, South Carolina, will be the Consortium Management Firm (CMF) that will manage a group of traditional and non-traditional Defense contractors who will complete prototype projects for the government. The consortium will facilitate competition for individual projects initiated by SPAWAR that align to its technology needs, in addition to fostering a mechanism for industry to provide independent ideas and concepts to the government for consideration. The consortium is being formed and will open immediately to industry registrants. Topics will open for competition beginning as early as August 2018.

The IWRP OTA is a flexible, streamlined acquisition tool that allows organizations across the SPAWAR enterprise to engage with non-traditional industry partners and academia to pursue opportunities to research, develop and prototype technologies that advance naval information warfare capabilities. The approach will reduce barriers to entry for industry and foster teaming, while leveraging advanced commercial technologies. It is centered on the areas of cyber warfare, cloud computing, data science and analytic technologies, assured communications, enterprise resource tools, collaboration and social networking, autonomy, mobility, assured command and control, integrated fires, model-based systems engineering, on-demand manufacturing and embedded systems in the “Internet of Things (IoT).” The IWRP OTA has the ability to flex to include new information warfare technologies that are identified based on the Navy’s emerging needs.

SSC Atlantic first announced the IWRP OTA during an Industry Day in February 2018 designed to give prospective offerors an understanding of the OTA strategy and to define the 14 technical scope areas the systems centers are exploring to advance naval information warfare capabilities. “We are truly doing something different and unique here,” Executive Director Chris Miller told more than 200 attendees at the Industry Day. He pointed out the IWRP OTA strategy aligns with clear signals from the Chief of Naval Operations to expand and strengthen our network of partners, and with SSC Atlantic’s strategic goal of accelerating and streamlining capability delivery. “The IWRP will allow us to take advantage of commercially developed capabilities that are keeping pace with emerging technologies; technologies and innovation that we cannot take advantage of in a FAR-based contract environment,” Miller said.

Congress broadened the DoD’s authority to use OTA provisions as part of the 2016 Defense Authorization Bill. SSC Atlantic Deputy Executive Director Bill Deligne, who leveraged OTAs in his previous position as executive director of Naval Sea Systems Command, stressed the value of the IWRP OTA as an enabler of rapid research and prototyping and increased access to innovative commercial solutions. “This mechanism is faster and more attuned to getting something quickly that we want today, as opposed to traditional federal acquisition,” Deligne said. “While speed is a critical element, reaching beyond the traditional DoD industrial base, further into the commercial sector to capture new, innovative solutions, is also a key element of the IWRP,” he added.

Since the SPAWAR enterprise has a presence at Navy installations around the world, this ground-breaking initiative will enable use of the national consortium approach with a global area of influence.